


Silent Promise

by simply_aly



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-06
Updated: 2013-03-06
Packaged: 2017-12-04 12:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/710843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simply_aly/pseuds/simply_aly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He tries his hardest to make her smile at least once each day. </p>
<p>(Deviates from canon after season 2)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silent Promise

Damon pretends not to notice the constant tearstains on Elena’s face. He pretends never to notice the way she spaces out whenever his brother’s name is mentioned.  
  
She _loved_ Stefan, and even if he isn’t truly dead, Damon figures this is her mourning him.  
  
He tries his hardest to make her smile at least once each day…and some days, she really makes that difficult. Even harder is making her laugh, and he often yearns to hear the sound. She plays at being normal, and Damon pretends to believe her, but something is always off in her expression and it makes it hard for Damon to not look at her with pity.  
  
Elena breaks down from the stress of all that has happened to her about a month after Stefan’s servitude to Klaus starts. Damon holds her as she cries and rubs her back soothingly until she falls asleep. Elena ignores him for weeks afterward, and Damon has no idea why. She only says she doesn’t want to see him.  
  
He abides by her wishes—never letting her see him watching her to make sure she is okay—and waits for her to realize what he’s known all along.  
  
Finally, she comes to him. “I can’t forget Stefan,” she tells him, “and I don’t want to—but I can’t just pretend that nothing happened that night before we knew what he had done.”  
  
“I won’t be a replacement,” he says. He knows from experience the lengths people go through after a loved one has left them. “I’ll love you and I’ll take care of you, but I won’t be Stefan for you.”  
  
A few tears leak out of her eyes. “I don’t want you to be Stefan, Damon.”  
  
He can’t say it to her because he knows she’s not ready to hear it, but he promises her in his mind. _I’ll be more_.


End file.
